Spaces of the informal economy: reimagining street trading through accessibility distribution analyses in Lagos

Akiyode, Akolade 2017. Spaces of the informal economy: reimagining street trading through accessibility distribution analyses in Lagos. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Street traders operate in and around spaces that facilitate optimal interactions with potential customers - a distribution pattern which coincides with the busiest and most central parts of a city. In Lagos, street trading is ubiquitous and its appropriation of public space is contentious for spatial governance. Attempts at regulation exacerbate the precarious status of street traders and are mostly unsuccessful, and this is due to the limited understanding of the spatiality of street trading. The locations where street trading thrives are thus investigated in this thesis to unravel what aspects of spatiality creates the milieu that encourages their activities - an area of research that has received little attention in recent years. The aim is to contribute to the discourse on inclusive urban practices and policies in developing country cities. In literature, the determinants of street traders workplace locations are referenced to externalities from locational centrality and potent human activity (Dewar and Watson 1990; Monnet et al. 2007; Skinner 2008b; Skinner 2008a; Dobson et al. 2009). However, this body of work has not employed a systematic analysis in the study of such locations. This gap in research is addressed by using a novel methodological framework known as ‘Spatial Design Network Analysis for Street-Based Enterprises’ (sDNA-sBEL), which combines the systematic analyses of multi-scale network accessibility distribution with morphological properties of urban form. As a principle of sDNA-sBEL, open-source data and freeware applications were used to ensure replicability and accessibility to a broader audience. The sDNA-sBEL analyses identified that the most prolific street trading locations in Lagos have high values of macro-scale betweenness – spaces traversed most frequently while Lagosians take the shortest routes for long distance (inter-city) vehicular journeys. However, other compositional spatial factors must coincide with macro-scale betweenness to sustain street trading.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Accessibility, Distribution, Network analysis, Street Trader, Location, Spatial governance, Informal Economy, Urban performance, Betweenness, Measurement, Public Space,
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 March 2018
Last Modified:	06 Aug 2021 15:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/109875

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